In this vlog, Justin Rhodes and his family manage a series of farm tasks on a cold winter morning. They first discover that the chickens' water line is frozen, prompting a quick decision to either haul water or move the birds into the barn for temporary care. After a brief sledding break, they return to troubleshoot a Premier One solar energizer that powers an electric poultry fence, referencing community reviews and a tutorial video by John Siskovich. While testing the fence, a possum slips into the coop, leading Justin to chase it out and assess why the fence failed to deter it. The vlog then shifts to a phone call with a viewer, Tiffany, who offers adult, non‑GMO‑fed chickens from northern Georgia. Justin and his partner discuss the logistics of a 4‑hour drive, timing, and family constraints before planning a Thursday pickup. Throughout, the narrative blends practical homesteading advice, family interaction, and promotion of DIY Abundant member resources.
Chapters
I came out to put the chickens up and, uh, they were out and not in their coop. And so I thought the door was shut. No, the door is not shut, but look.
Hey, it can't freeze if nothing's in there.
All right, they've drank it all. Not going to be able to refill that this morning because it's 27 degrees and the line is going to be frozen. We could, uh, haul water out there, or we could put them inside the barn, fill up their buckets, and just check on them at lunch and supper.
Let's do it. You do the lanes and I can do the waters.
Really? Can you do that? Okay, Lane's ready. You ready, Jonah? Oh, you can carry that. Nice, Mr. Brown. It's good to have you back on my back, buddy. Grab a staff. Thank you very much, Dan Oman. He gave me this in hopes of getting sheep. Well, maybe one day, Dan. Right now I got cows, and this will be handy in case, uh, I need to poke them to get them going, or Stud Muffin tries something saucy. Fortunately, if they were out too long, they do have a fresh water source right in here. It's out of a swamp. Come on, come on, show them how to do it, Violet. It's tricky because Violet knows what to do, but he's the boss. You gonna let her lead, buddy? Go on, go on, go on, go on, Violet. Johnna, back up. There you go. Good job, guys. Patience. Patience is key. Hey, that's Shep— that shepherd's crook come in handy right there, Dan. There. Come on. Hey, come on, Violet. Come on, Violet. Hey, sweetie. Hey, sweetie. Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's okay. It's okay. Look, here, I'll give you a neck rub. That gets you every time. That gets you every time. That gets you every time.
Can we go sledding?
Yeah, we can go sledding.
Okay.
Little bit of work, little bit of fun.
And the jump part where you know how it curves up? First time I went—
Watch this, Mr. Brown. You watching? Here we go. I don't know, Gideon, you want to try it? No.
Okay, here I go. That's fun.
Back from sledding. A little bit more work. So excited this is here. Premier One Energizer. Yeah, I was doubtful of these nice Premier One solar Energizer, I'll be honest, but so many people had them on the tour. Especially somebody— especially people like John Siskovich, somebody I trust— give this a really nice review. How cool! How nice! This is a Kitchen Garden Energizer, guys. Now let's get our connectors out. Okay, I'm looking in here. This is not going yet, so I'm assuming the batteries are dead and need charged. So let's just leave it here today. I gained confidence in that Premier 1 Energizer from John Siskovich. And many others on the tour. I actually captured a nice video with John about how he sets up an electric poultry net for his chickens. He's got some neat tricks that I learned and will implement in the future. That video is actually available for free. I don't even need your email. It's on my landing page for the Do It Yourself Abundant member area. You can go there and watch that video for free, not even sign up with an email. It's there ready to play. I'll give you the link down in the description. Oh, you got the beautiful one in on the Lego build.
That's right.
Hey, hey, Beauty, what's the update on our chicks? You called them yesterday. Did you get them?
I called them and they were— they didn't answer their phone, and so I didn't leave a second message.
Okay, breaking news, a viewer has said They've got some chickens for us, adult chickens, if we're interested. They've been fed non-GMO. They're in northern Georgia. Let's give them a call.
Hello?
Hey, is this Tiffany? It is. This is Justin Rhodes. How you doing?
Hey, how are you?
Good. Yeah, I got your email about your adult chickens.
Yes, um, my family's laughing at me because, um, I told them that our chickens might be famous. Yes, so they are adult chickens. They, um, so we're down to 23 and they're all healthy. We no longer have a rooster. Yeah, you know, we love them, but my husband just bought a large, um, farm up in Kentucky. Oh, and He is a deer hunter, and so it's mostly just timbers right now, but we want to go up there and work on the farm. Okay, we don't have anybody to take care of our chickens.
Ah, these are the pictures. Looking real good. A non-GMO feed. I'm so excited for that. Beauty, the only problem— okay, they're gonna give them to us. Yeah, that's crazy.
That's awesome.
Uh, the only problem is it's 4 hours away. They said it's like 4.5 hours to Biltmore House.
Oh wow, and they're not coming.
They're not coming north of us, so maybe they would cut off an hour and a half if we want. No, they're terribly busy, they're moving. That's why they're having to go to the chicken. So I don't think we can entice them with our wonderful cooking. Dang.
So we entice them with a vacation, a weekend free in Maple, farm tour.
They're very busy right now and they're moving to another farm, so—
Why can't we do the drive? I just really want to eat Ya Burger.
Oh, because it's 40 more minutes from there to Ya Burger.
And because I don't want to drive down there.
And what Grandma says, she's not going down there anytime soon.
Grandma's friend doesn't live near Blue Ridge.
Okay.
Shall we just be sick hours? Beauty and I have talked. We've got our plan. Beauty, you ready to get back in the van?
Yeah. Talk me into it.
Thursday, we're gonna see if Thursday works for them. They're texting back right now. Let's see. Let's see, will Thursday work? Leave early in the morning, 8, get there about around lunch, take an hour to get the chickens, come back, be back by suppertime. Waiting, waiting. Sounds good, she says. Thursday we're getting adult tiller chickens. I came out to put the chickens up. And, uh, they were out and not in their coops. And so I thought that the door was shut. No, the door is not shut. But look, look who's visiting them— a possum. All right, so I'm sort of glad that the door was open because the chickens were able to get out and not get attacked. Although that guy was small. They're pretty vicious. I thought— I came up with the idea of like, let's shoo him out and see if he'll show us where he came in at. I was suspecting that I had— he had gotten in before I got the fence working, because yes, I'll admit it, remember earlier when I said that the, the batteries must need charging? Well, no, the batteries just needed to— the system just needed to be turned on. Okay, so I think he got in before that system was turned on because I tested it and it was hitting very hot. Come on, you're not gonna fit through it. You're just gonna get stuck here. Come on, come back up, back up, back up. There you go, there you go. If you back up I'll lift it up for you.
There.
Now back up, back up.
There you go.
Boy, I do not want to accidentally step on that. Oh my gosh. Are you serious? I'm gonna pull that out of the ground and maybe he'll find that and go under that. Come on, come on. Wrong way, wrong way, goober. You know what, let's do this. No. All right, let's undo this fence here, this corner post. Yeah, there you go, squeeze through. So I shoot him out. He got tangled in the fence like a bajillion times, but I finally got him through and watched him go off. Turn that fence on, shut the door, move the chicken tractor up into a flat location where he couldn't get under if he got into the fence. Come on, go around. Let's go around. Come on. There we go, there we go. Going in. Good gals. So I've put it up here. There's no gaps around it. I believe he got in before the fence started hitting. Let's go turn that fence on. So, we'll see what happens.
